


The Other Promise

by speakgreektome (epicionly)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2013-11-17
Packaged: 2018-01-01 20:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1047985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/epicionly/pseuds/speakgreektome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fighting the darkness is his job now; Axel knows that. And that's exactly what he does.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Other Promise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yourhandiheld](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourhandiheld/gifts).



> Play this with [its namesake](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWF0pFVJL9k) in the background.

He already can feel Sora's eyes. So this is what it feels like on the other side of them.  
  
He shuts his own. The sound in his ears doesn't mute.  
  
I'm alive, he thinks, and the thought makes him tremble instead of rejoice. There's half a heart that sits in him right now, and the other half made complete by a darkness that had been holding the space of Roxas's. There's nothing wrong with him. He knows that.  
  
But a heart is so unexpectedly heavy. It weighs down on him and crushes him still. He feels it in his throat.  
  
Roxas doesn't think for moment, caught in between catching his breath, feeling the ground under his feet, under his body, and being. Existing. The grass feels wet under his hands and arms. The world swims like a river, holds timeless like a sunset. He swallows, dry mouthed and heaving.  
  
Sora says, "I'm sorry."  
  
Roxas turns his head to study him, where he lays similarly next to him. "What are you sorry for?" It should be Roxas.  
  
Sora still looks so sad, even though it's his heart that's missing a chunk, even though it's his heart that Roxas has now pumped as much as the nobody that was in him contained. Roxas moves before he thinks, reaching out to grip the side of Sora's mouth. He pulls. "Ow!"  
  
"Don't be," Roxas says. Fiercely. He pinches hard enough for Sora to get it, hard enough that tears begin to form. Roxas stares at them, almost willing them to fall, to realize how dumb that mood was, how out of anyone, the last one should be. Should. "You gave me...you gave. You just did."  
  
Everything is still around them. There is nothing except the two of them, and it's different than it was in Sora's heart. Roxas feels the loss of those connections, the absence of the monotony of memories. Sora stares at him, eyes so intent and so forward.  
  
They stay like that. Roxas's hand lays on his cheek, and Sora's mouth is the most brilliant of smiles.  
  
"Welcome back, Roxas."  
  
\--  
  
Their training had been simple. A full day's training with a full day's rest. Master Yen Sid and King Mickey were very clear on the necessity. So it became routine, too, for them to travel to different worlds on their off days, exploring the nooks and crannies as though they were still children in the worlds that had been brought into being when those hearts were young.  
  
Kairi and Riku chose Destiny Islands, as beautiful as Sora remembered. The paopu fruit was still there, simple and small in his hands for all that it was lauded in legend. There, they spent the day on the beach, stripping down to shorts and shirts as they ran about. Lea begged off invitation and was content to merely sleep in the shade as they ran off; Riku eventually joined him, and all was forgotten until the end of the day, and Riku said, "Just don't forget," when they all went their separate ways.  
  
Donald and Goofy inevitably chose the King's castle when it was their turn. Donald cited reason in the need to study, quabbled slightly on relaxing, and ended up being the most enthusiastic when they were playing Duck, Duck, Goose. Riku enjoyed conversing with Queen Minnie, and Sora played with Chip and Dale on the Gummiship. Kairi and Lea went somewhere at one point too, but, by the end of the day, returned.  
  
("What're you guys being so secretive about?" Sora asked.  
  
"No real secret," Lea said, humoured by his interest. "Just a talk between friends, you know?"  
  
He hummed when Sora looked at him, and when he turned his face to the side, to watch the sunset as it was, Sora felt a longing that wasn't his.)  
  
\--  
  
Sora tells him about all that's happened, with the Organization, its purpose, what it was all really for. Roxas feels something now, over the novelty of hurt that afflicts so deep that he chokes. He was always able to feel emotion without a heart; but it's somehow more powerful, more gripping. Disgusted bile fills his mouth. Anger fills him so fully now that his lungs can't contain the air.  
  
"And you're going to kill him? That asshole."  
  
"I'm going to stop him," Sora says. He reaches out and holds Roxas's hand, even firmer than Roxas's own clenched fists. "We are."  
  
Roxas can't think past the anger. He almost yanks his hand out, and would have, if Sora's doesn't tug it once to get him to look back up at him.  
  
"Axel missed you," Sora says then, wielding the name like he's unaware of the power. His eyes are soft, and Roxas has to look away. He doesn't mention Xion, because he sees too much of her right now.  
  
They leave the world of trees and grassy plains, past the talking bear and the bouncing tiger, and out of the hundred acre wood without more.  
  
\--  
  
Lea wasn't the difference between tight-lipped and loose depending on what you talked to him about; instead he was lax as he was kind of cocky, inserting himself in conversations and equally and smoothly leaving them behind as he moved on. For all of his friendliness, he was a stranger too. Whatever he wanted from them, he wasn't interested. He didn't bicker, and seemed comfortable with his arms folded and on the wall, listening and interjecting sometimes, but for the most part disappearing once all was said and done.  
  
There was no shared sunset watching and no sea-salt taste, no overly knowing looks and the ultimate sense of bearing an emptiness in both of them that could be expressed by not possessing a heart. He smiled when Sora spoke to him, was kind when he spoke and acted, but his voice was never as indulgent. And the ache in Sora's heart never did lessen every time he looked at him; it was a subtle ache, one that went further through the surface. Deep, cutting until it refused to well up any further through the gaps.  
  
("Lea."  
  
Lea didn't open his eyes from where he sat, casually with his limbs out. "Mm?"  
  
"Lea," Sora repeated.  
  
One lazy eye opened. "You got something for me...Sora?" It was the wrong name.  
  
"What," Sora said, grinning, "like I can't check on someone?"  
  
Lea made a show of thinking about it, eyebrows furrowing only slightly before they relaxed. He laughed. "I guess you've got it right," He slouched deeper on the seat, feet on the table. "I'm aching all over. You Keyblade wielders sure have it rough."  
  
"You'll get used to it," Sora said. "It's a good ache." Sora sat himself next to him, bouncing slightly on the seat. "Hey," he said immediately, "So you'll be going off tomorrow, right?"  
  
"Yeah," Lea said, good-naturedly. "You're going on a mission too, aren't you?"  
  
Sora wondered what it would be like. Whether or not that calm smile would spread wide, whether or not the wild gestulations and the caught-off-guard laughs would erupt.  
  
"Get back soon, alright? I'm going to get a surprise for you."  
  
"Well, always did like doing it heart to heart. I'll see you.")  
  
\--  
  
It's wrong. Roxas notices it as much as Sora stiffens and leaps, hands grasped onto his Keyblade. Roxas has his own two at the ready, barely blocking something spinning rapidly at him. The air crackles with fire, burnt down walls and collapsing beams overhead. The temperature is too hot in here, but Roxas feels too cold.  
  
A figure draws near to them, almost obscured by the shadow.  
  
"Axel," Roxas says--asks? It can't be, it doesn't have to be. Every part of his body is on the edge.  
  
Axel grins in a way that is wrong, all teeth and bite instead of a playful snap. He catches the other chakram that Sora hits back, weighing it loosely by his wrist as though he were performing.  
  
"Still remember me, Roxas?" He swaggers forward, eyes glinting yellow. His voice grates and sends his nerves on end with every word enunciated. "I'm so flattered."  
  
\--  
  
("I'm sorry.")

 

 

 

end.


End file.
